Directed by Charlie Gobbett

A ferocious comedy about money, greed and psycopathic neighbours.

Bryan, a moderately successful anaesthetist, comes back from work one day to find a fifty-pound note on the table. Nothing particularly odd about that… But the next morning, his wife Lesley discovers a small pile of money on the lounge floor, and soon bundles – then floods – of cash start falling out of cupboards and piling up in the bedroom. Where is all this money coming from? Does someone up there like them or is someone persecuting them for some past misdeed? As their previously untroubled and unremarkable domestic life starts to fall apart under the strain, their suspicions fall on their Polish cleaner Kasia, but then a paranoid neighbour with a penchant for violence turns up with suspicions of his own, and things get really serious…

Charlie is a professional theatre translator who has appeared on the amateur stage at the Harlequin Theatre and elsewhere many times over the years. He also directed another play he translated at Nantwich Players in July 2022 and is directing the Harlequin production The Conductor in May this year.

Set in the present day, this play is very accessible on one level, with lots of straightforward and physical comedy content and action. It’s about an ordinary couple in an absurd and funny situation which spirals into violence and (comic?) murder. On another level, it has interesting things to say about greed and our relationship with money. Does having left-wing sensibilities mean that you are less tempted by the draw of filthy lucre, or does the prospect of being rich beyond our wildest dreams turn us into monsters – or, worse still, stark raving mad?